India: Mahindra signs MoU to support farmers with key information

One of India’s leading agricultural companies has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a World Bank-funded government project to help provide important information to growers so they can become more competitive.

Sushil Khodwekar (right) and Ashok Sharma

Mahindra Agri Solutions announced on Friday it had signed the agreement with the Maharashtra Agriculture Competitiveness Project (MACP).

The MACP is led by the Maharashtra government and aims to increase productivity, profitability and market access for farmers in the west-central region.

The deal would enable the dissemination of real-time agri-advisory and market information to the region’s growers through Mahindra’s digital platform, the MyAgriGuru app.

This partnership also boosts Mahindra Agri’s contribution to the government’s endeavor to digitize the agricultural sector, the company said.

“We are delighted to sign this MoU with MACP the primary objective of which would be to educate farmers by delivering information on agri commodities and the agri market,” said Ashok Sharma, Mahindra Agri’s president of agriculture.

“India is undergoing an exciting phase of reinventing itself in the agri space and this partnership is also part of our Farming 3.0 initiative where we are witnessing innovative and digital disruptions in agriculture. We are grateful to the Government of Maharashtra for their support and look forward to successfully implementing this project”.

MACP project director Sushil Khodwekar said the development would help strengthen farming companies.

“MACP has also established an in-house Centre for “Indian Agriculture Market Intelligence cell” for price forecasting of select agriculture commodities. This forecast report will be disseminated through the MyAgriGuru App to all the Farmer Producer Companies empowering them to make better decisions.”

Launched in February 2017, MyAgriGuru is described as being a unique platform that aims to connect all the farmers and agri-experts across the country on a single medium. It is one of the fastest growing apps in the agriculture space, having connected 380,000 farmers within one year of launch.